Dear Jimmy

JimmyPage.com is 2 years old today yet it’s still recycling OTDs. Visitors have to sign up with a name and email address to even surf the site, yet you’re not taking full advantage of even having that info…the one website I would actually like to receive emails from isn’t reaching out.

What are some things I would do?

Tweak your “On This Day” (OTD) strategy to be better aligned with how people use Twitter, Facebook, etc. I get there could be practical reasons for not archiving your OTD’s – the hassle (perhaps?) of hosting accompanying audio or video files) but it’s problematic…understandable, but in this Twitter/Facebook/et.al. world, problematic. Some folks aren’t on Twitter every day and may miss the occasional OTD. Those same folk may, however, may be glued to their email or Facebook or Tumblr accounts checking in multiple times a day. You already have our email addresses, why not just blast out an email letting us know of the OTD update?

Bring your OTD content right into your site. By way of a kind of calendar feature where your site members can click on a specific day, repurpose that content so visitors can catch up on some updates they may have missed…and share them amongst their friends and followers. Yes, I realize that goes against the current strategy, but many of those updates have been so creatively executed (not to mention your own accompanying commentary, beautifully cheeky at times, shining through) it’s a shame that they’re currently up for only 24 hours.

Freshen up your website design. Okay, okay, it’s only 2 years old, but, why not? If some upcoming Led Zeppelin re-releases are really on your sched before the end of this year, why not leverage the timing of them with a freshening up of your site? Its structure and navigation works – just a little design tweaking.

Dynamically pull in user-generated and other third-party content. You might not totally appreciate the extent to which folks are sharing and creating content, but we’re out here, and some of it is quite exceptional. There are technical, hands-off ways to create and maintain a connection (communion?) with your fans that enhance your website’s content, keeping it fresh, without much administrative work on your team’s part.

Now, citing 4 specific examples above flys in the face of how any social media strategy should be approached – because I’ve jumped immediately to some tactics. First things first: it does depend on your overall objectives, what you want to achieve, your overall content strategy, the resources you have to execute, and how you want to present your brand and legacy to your fans, all to the degree that you feel personally comfortable in doing so…in putting yourself “out here.”

I get that you’re private with mysterious tendencies – 😉 – but it is possible to stay current and “social media relevant” without encroaching on your privacy. You have over 1 million Facebook likes but barely 55,000 Twitter followers …fans on soundcloud, a raging fandom on tumblr, etc. etc., yet the activity on all those JP accounts appears to have fallen off a cliff.

It’s time. Change up the strategy. I guess there could be some things already in the works. If not, suffice to say, call/tweet/ping me… 😉 … this Taurus (with Moon in Cancer, I might add) would love the challenge.